IRLF 


ODM 


TflE  VflMfl  Q\  AgULA^ 


Synopsis  of  Prof.  I.  N.    Vail's  Argument  in  Support  of  the    Claim  that 
this  Earth  once  Possessed  a  Saturn-like  System  of  Rings. 


PREPARED    BY 


STEPHEN     BOWERS,   A.   M.,   Pfr.   D, 

Editor  of  the  Ventura  Observer. 


VENTURA,  CALIFORNIA: 

THE  OBSERVER  PRESS  PRINT. 

1892. 


TpE  Vlp4  U\  m^lh\  TjlEOIflf 


A  Synopsis  of  Prof.  L  N.    Vail's  Argument  in  Support  of  the    Claim  that 
this  Earth  once  Possessed  a  Saturn-like  System  of  Rings. 


PREPARED    BY 


STEPHEN     BOWERS,   A.   M.,  Ph.   D. 

Editor  of  the  Ventura  Observer. 

FELLOW     OF    THE     GEOLOGICAL     SOCIETY     OF     AMERICA,    CORRESPONDING     MEMBER    OF 
THE    AMERICAN     GEOGRAPHIC     SOCIETY,    PHILADELPHIA    ACADEMY 

OF    SCIENCES,    ETC.,    ETC.,    ETC. 


VENTURA,  CALIFORNIA: 

THE    OBSERVER    PRESS    PRINT. 

1892. 


V3 


WVfN 


PRBFACE. 


The  theory  advanced  by  Prof.  I.  N.  Vail  accounts  for  the  formation  of 
the  earth's  crust,  with  its  associated  minerals,  in  the  fact  that  it  was  once 
surrounded  by  rings  of  agueous  vapor,  containing  much  of  its  present 
solid  matter,  which  fell  as  mighty  deluges.  The  last  of  these  rings  des- 
cended at  the  time  of  the  Noachian  deluge  and  caused  that  catastrophe, 
which  is  so  graphically  described  by  Moses,  and  which  tradition  has  sung 
in  the  ears  of  every  tribe  of  Adam's  race.  The  formation  of  these  rings 
was  caused  by  the  intense  heat,  which  drove  to  an  immense  distance  every 
substance  which  could  be  reduced  to  vapor,  and  where  they  formed  as 
annular  bands  or  rings  similar  to  those  surrounding  the  planet  Saturn  at 
the  present  time.  After  long  ages  the  portion  nearest  the  earth  slowly 
overcanopied  the  heavens,  and  owing  to  the  lack  of  centrifugal  force 
began  its  decent  at  the  poles. 

This  theory  explains  certain  phenomena  better  than  any  other  yet  ad- 
vanced by  scientists.  It  accounts  for  the  uplift  of  mountains  ;  the  deposit 
of  coal  and  other  minerals  ;  the  glacial  age  ;  the  retardation  of  the  moon, 
and  it  alone  explains  much  contained  in  the  first  eight  chapters  of  Genesis. 

Prof.  Vail  has  published  a  volume  of  about  400  pages  on  this  subject, 
which  for  clearness  of  statement  and  logical  conclusions  has  seldom  been 
equaled  by  previous  writers  on  scientific  subjects.  He  deals  in  convincing 
facts  which  are  destined  to  overturn  many  pre-conceived  theories  in  the 
science  of  geology. 

My  object  in  sending  forth  this  pamphlet  is  to  call  the  attention  of  in- 
telligent readers  to  a  theory  which  must  engage  the  attention  of  scientists 
in  the  future,  and  which  will  enable  the  geologist  to  make  clear  many 
things  which  are  now  obscure.  I  respectfully  ask  for  the  following  pages 
a  candid  reading,  and  for  further  information  on  the  subject  refer  the 
reader  to  Prof.  Vail's  "Story  of  the  Bocks",  and  to  other  works  of  the 
gifted  author,  which  are  now  passing  through  the  press. 

VENTURA,  CALIFORNIA,  S.  B. 

September  1,  1892. 


TpE  VAILAfl 


IMPORTANCE    OF  THE  QUESTION. 

Jupiter's  belts  are  doubtless  aque- 
ous vapor  driven  from  that  planet 
by  heat;  similar  in  every  respect, 
probably,  to  the  primitive  condition 
of  our  globe.  This  vapor  would 
not  all  fall  at  once  on  the  cooling  of 
the  earth,  but  the  upper  portion 
would  continue  to  revolve  for  a  long 
period. 

All  geologists  agree  that  the  earth 
was  once  in  an  igneous  fluid  state, 
and  during  that  condition  all  of  its 
waters  and  whatever  else  could  be 
vaporized  and  sublimed  by  heat,  as 
the  less  refractory  metals  and  min- 
erals, were  driven  away  from  its  sur- 
face. The  foundation  of  the  Annu- 
lar System  was  the  molten  or  igne- 
ous world.  The  vaporized  water, 
mineral  and  metallic  elements  re- 
pelled from  it  existed  as  a  great  va- 
porized atmosphere  that  rotated  with 
the  earth. 

If  the  earth  then  rotated  once  in 
twenty -four  hours,  so  did  the  atmos- 
phere. Proctor  and  some  others 
claim  that  the  earth  then  rotated  in 
three  hours;  if  so,  the  atmosphere 


did  the  same  No  matter  how  long 
or  how  short  the  period  of  the 
earth's  rotation,  the  upper  vapors  ro- 
tated with  it.  Then,  when  and  how 
did  these  vapors  and  other  materials 
composing  the  atmosphere  return  to 
the  earth?  Geologists  generally 
have  claimed  that  they  fell  at  the 
close  of  the  igneous  period;  but  the 
Annular  Theory  claims  that  they  did 
not,  and  it  undertakes  to  explain  the 
phenomena  of  the  geologic  «,ges  and 
epochs  upon  this  claim. 

The  most  eminent  scientists  agree 
that  the  vapors  were  driven  off  at 
least  200,000  miles  from  the  earth, 
and  many  claim  a  distance  of  240,- 
000  miles.  All  of  the  carbon  in  the 
grand  casement  of  aqueous  rocks, 
the  vast  oceans  of  oxygen  now  con- 
tained in  the  silicates,  sulphates,  car- 
bonates and  oxides  of  the  crust,  as 
well  as  the  nitrogen  and  hydrogen 
in  numerous  compounds  enormously 
swelled  its  volume.  But  the  Annu- 
lar Theory  will  claim  but  100,000 
miles  as  the  atmosphere  and  that  the 
earth  rotated  as  now,  once  in  twen- 
ty-four hours.  At  the  equator  it 
revolves  at  the  rate  of  1,000  miles 
an  hour,  at  which  rate  the  periphery 


THE  VAILAN  OR  ANNULAR  SYSTEM. 


of  the  earth's  primitive  atmosphere 
would  revolve  more  than  25,000 
miles  an' hour. 

Now  it  is  mathematically  certain 
that  a  body  in  our  atmosphere  re- 
volving at  the  rate  of  17,500  miles 
an  hour  could  not  fall  to  the  earth's 
surface.  By  Kelper's  "Third  Law" 
we  can  readily  demonstrate  not  only 
that  these  vapors  were  thrown  out 
into  a  ring  system,  but  how  far  be- 
yond the  earth  they  reached,  name- 
ly: "The  squares  of  the  periodic 
times  of  revolving  satellites  are  pro- 
portioned to  the  cubes  of  their 
mean  distances  from  the  primary 
around  which  they  move." 

The  vapors  nearest  the  earth  did 
not  possess  the  energy  of  satellites, 
consequently  they  fell  ko  the  earth, 
as  the  latter's  surface  cooled,  leaving 
the  more  distant  matter  moving  in- 
dependently above  it. 

EVIDENCES  OF  THE  GEOLOGIC  RECORD. 

When  the  earth  was  in  a  state  of 
fiery  fluidity,  all  of  the  water  it 
now  contains  was  suspended  at  a 
great  distance  above  it.  Beside  the 
oceans  which  now  cover  three- 
fourths  of  the  surface  of  the  globe, 
rocks  and  coals  contain  from  ten 
per  cent  to  one  half  water,  all  of 
which  was  primarily  held  in  suspen- 
sion. The  bosom  of  the  earth  is 
continually  absorbing  water  as  is 
demonstrated  by  deep  mines  and 
other  excavations.  Dana  estimates 
that  even  if  the  crust  of  the  earth 
is  but  five  miles  thick  that  the 
oceans  would  be  400  feet  deeper  if 
all  of  the  earth's  imbibed  waters 
could  be  returned  to  them.  But 
the  earth's  crust  is  more  likely  to  be 
100  miles  thick,  and  it  has  been  im- 
bibing these  waters  for  millions  of 
years  if  not  millions  of  ages.  This 
would  increase  the  oceans,  to  about 


8000  feet  deeper  than  now.  Yet 
oceans  are  much  deeper  today  than 
they  were  in  geologic  times. 

This  great  mass  of  vapor  would 
rotate  by  centrifugal  force  at  the 
equator,  but  there  being  no  such 
force  at  the  poles  it  was  there  kept 
from  falling  by  heat  -alone.  If 
the  earth  had  not  rotated 
vapors  would  have  occupied  g 
heights;  but  centrifugal  force  ue^ 
ing  aided  by  actual  rotation  they, 
were  driven  much  farther.  These 
forces  necessarily  drove  the  vapors 
over  the  equator.  If,  however,  any 
vapors  were  left  at  the  poles  they 
must  have  fallen  when  the  earth 
cooled  down. 

At  that  age  rolled  the  first  born 
ocean  around  the  globe.  Clouds 
formed,  rain  descended,  and  winds 
swept  the  earth.  There  was  sum- 
mer and  winter,  and  day  and  night. 

The  centripetal  force  of  the 
rings  was  gradually  retarded  by  the 
influence  of  the  moon,  and  the  grav- 
ital  force  was  increased  until  the 
rings  spread  over  the  earth  or  ap- 
proached it.  When  the  innermost 
ring  gradually  descended  toward 
the  earth  and  came  in  contact  with 
the  air  it  was  checked,  and  necessar- 
ily spread  out  toward  the  poles. 
Gravital  force  is  strongest  in  the 
polar  regions.  If  the  rings  of  Sat- 
urn and  Jupiter  could  increase 
their  motion  they  would  rise  to 
greater  heights.  If  they  could  be- 
come slower  they  would  sink  toward 
the  poles. 

EVIDENCE  FROM  OTHER  PLANETS. 

We  have  never  seen  the  actual 
face  of  Saturn,  and  the  sun  is  never 
visible  to  its  inhabitants.  It  is  a 
planet  upon  which  there  is  probably 
perpetual  day.  The  belts  are  com- 
posed of  the  same  kind  of  material 


THE  VAILAN  OR  ANNULAR  SYSTEM. 


as  the  super-crust  of  the  earth — 
silicious,  calcareous  and  carbona- 
ceous matter.  They  will  in  time 
become  a  part  of  the  planet's  sedi- 
mentary formation. 

When  the  inveterate  fires  of  the 
sun  shall  have  died  out,  forms  of 
carbon  and  associated  forms  of 
aqueous  and  mineral  matter  will 
form  an  annular  system  around  it. 

A  burning  world  must  be  a  smok- 
ing world,  and  from  its  furnaces 
must  arise  vast  volumes  of  uncon- 
sumed  carbon  to  mingle  with  sus- 
pended vapors. 

When  Saturn's  rings  fall  to  the 
body  of  the  planet  its  moons  will 
necessarily  retire  a  little  farther 
from  it.  Astronomers  say  that  our 
moon  is  gradually  retiriDg  from  the 
earth.  Then  it  must  have  had  an 
annular  system  which  fell  and 
caused  the  moon  to  recede. 

FUETHEE  EXAMINATION  OF  THE  EECOBD 

The  vapors  contained  silex,  quartz 
and  whatever  else  was  vaporized 
and  suspended  therein.  After  the 
atmosphere  had  cooled  it  deposited 
on  the  earth  what  it  contained  when 
heated.  Much  of  the  sedimentary 
beds  built  upon  the  Laurentian  and 
older  rocks  were  simply  precipitated 
from  the  annular  system. 

Iron  and  sulphur  existed  in  the 
upper  ocean  as  metallic  and  mineral 
salts.  In  the  cooling  process  the 
heavier  minerals  and  metals  would 
necessarily  locate  nearest  the  earth 
and  be  the  first  to  fall.  True  they 
were  disseminated  to  a  certain  ex- 
tent throughout  the  system. 

Iron  and  other  heavy  metals 
formed  beds  in  the  sea  bottom. 
Iron  from  Iron  Mountain,  Mo., 
and  Pilot  Knob,  also  lead  and  cop- 
per ores  are  in  the  Laurentian  rocks. 
These  rocks  are  aqueous  or  sedimen- 


tary. The  annular  matter  fell  but 
in  small  part  in  equatorial  regions, 
but  largely  in  temperate  and  frigid 
zones. 

It  is  folly  to  suppose  that  all  the 
matter  of  aqueous  beds  were  depos- 
ited from  previous  aqueous  beds  by 
denudation.  How  were  subsequent 
lime  deposits  made  from  silicious 
Archaean  beds?  Denudation  has 
taken  place  in  all  ages,  and  a  fall 
and  precipitation  of  exotic  matter 
— telluric-cosmic  matter — aided  in 
the  work. 

CONCLUSIONS  EEACHED. 

1.  All    terrestial     waters     were 
held  in  suspension. 

2.  This   rotated   as   a   part  and 
parcel    of    the    earth — a    primeval 
atmosphere   of    great  complexity  of 
material. 

3.  This  suspended   matter  gath- 
ered in  the  earth's   equatorial  heav- 
ens, and  on    condensing   contracted 
and   segregated   into    rings    which 
revolved  independently. 

4.  The   waters  on   high  fell  in  a 
succession      of     stupendous     cata- 
clysms. 

5.  The   first   ocean  was  impreg- 
nated    with    mineral   and   metallic 
salts. 

6.  It   required   a   vast   lapse   of 
time   for   rings   to  fall.     Each  ring 
continued  to  revolve  as  a  belt  about 
the  earth  with  a  decreasing  velocity 
as   it   spread   toward  the  poles  and 
overcanopied  the  earth. 

7.  The   smoke    or     unconsumed 
carbon   that  arose   from   the  earth, 
darkened     the     upper   vapors   and 
formed  bands  or  belts. 

8.  The  moon  retarded  the  rings, 
causing  them  to  fall  upon  the  earth, 
and  it  then  receded  from  our  planet. 

9.  The     Archaean     metaliferous 
deposits   are   so  located  as  to  be  in- 


THE  VAILAN  OR  ANNULAR  SYSTEM. 


explicable    by    the    old    theory   of 
aqueous  denudation. 

10.  The  Silurian  beds,  and  par- 
ticularly the  order  of  their  occur- 
rence utterly  refutes  the  idea  that 
they  were  derived  from  pre-existing 
beds. 

DEMONSTRATED     BY    HISTORIC    TESTIMONY. 

In  Gen.  1:7  God  made  the  firm- 
manent  and  divided  the  waters 
which  were  under  the  firmmament 
from  the  waters  which  were  above 
the  firmmament.  According  to  the 
Hebrew  the  atmosphere  became  an 
expanse  between  two  bodies  of 
waters,  and  of  course  the  upper 
stratum  had  to  move  round  the 
earth.  In  Gen.  1 :3,4  light  came  in 
and  garnished  the  heavens  before 
the  sun  was  seen. 

In  the  10th.  verse  the  waters  on 
the  earth  were  called  seas,  the  water 
above  the  earth  was  called  the  deep, 
and  the  Spirit  of  God  moved  upon 
them.  "And  God  said,  Let  there  be 
light,"  and  light  came  upon  the 
deep. 

In  Gen  1:  14-19  the  sun  which 
existed  for  ages  did  not  appear  in 
the  heavens  until  after  the  sun 
brought  forth  grass,  etc.  Then  it  is 
plain  that  some  intercepting  canopy 
cut  off  the  direct  rays  of  the  sun. 

The  writer  of  Genesis  did  not  say 
the  sun  and  moon  shone  upon  the 
earth,  but  he  does  say  the  stars  did 
this.  According  to  the  Vailan 
theory  this  is  true,  but  they  shone 
in  from  polar  regions. 

The  earths  surface  was  not  heated 
by  the  suns  direct  rays,  but  under 
the  overcanopying  vapors  it  must 
have  been  warmed,  and  its  temper- 
ature equalized  by  transmitted  and 
diffused  solar  heat. 


CONCLUSIONS. 

There  was  a  green-house  temper- 
ature all  over  the  earth  at  this  time. 
Storms  and  tempests  were  unknown, 
as  such  phenomena  are  caused  by 
sun-power,  sun-heat  falling  directly 
upon  the  earth.  Rains  were  infre- 
quent, if  at  all. 

Man,  in  the  day  when  solar  ac- 
tinism was  shorn  of  its  strength, 
must  have  experienced  remarkable 
longevity,  for  upon  solar  energy 
depends  every  form  and  phaze  of 
life  on  earth. 

The  day  of  rest  referred  to  in 
Gen.  2:3  in  which  God  ceased  from 
his  labors  was  a  windless,  stormless, 
rainless,  winterless  age;  for  immed- 
iately we  are  told  that  "God  had 
not  caused  it  to  rain  upon  the 
earth."  The  climate  was  warm  for 
man  dwelt  naked  upon  the  earth. 
He  was  nurtured  in  a  green-house 
world. 

The  rainbow  comes  into  view 
after  the  deluge  for  the  first  time. 
There  could  have  been  neither  rain 
nor  sunshine  previously,  just  what 
the  Vailan  theory  claims.  The 
wind  came  upon  the  earth  after  the 
waters  of  the  deluge  had  fallen,  and 
not  before. 

It  was  after  the  deluge  that  God 
said,  "While  the  earth  remaineth 
seed-time  and  harvest,  and  cold  and 
heat,  and  summer  and  winter,  and 
day  and  night  shall  not  cease."  The 
period  before  the  flood  was  night- 
less,  and  evening  and  morning  were 
day;  that  is,  they  coalesced  into  one 
period  called  day. 

After  the  deluge  the  bow  is  given ; 
man's  longevity  declines;  the  winds 
come,  and  alternating  seasons  take 
place — all  pointing  to  the  fact  that 
the  antedeluvian  world  was  over- 
canopyed  by  annular  waters. 


THE  VAILAN  OR  ANNULAR  SYSTEM. 


Every  leaf  of  the  geologic  record 
declares  that  the  world  has  been 
deluged  time  and  again,  which  this 
theory  also  claims  to  be  true,  and  to 
have  taken  place  at  the  declension 
of  each  ring  or  stratum. 

THE  NOCHIAN  DELUGE. 

There  is  enough  water  now  on 
the  earth  and  in  its  rocky  frame  to 
make  an  hundred  terrific  deluges, 
every  one  of  which  could  drown  the 
world  of  living  beings. 

In  early  days  man  believed  there 
was  a  great  deep  on  high.  The 
sources  of  the  deluge  were  "broken 
up,"  and  never  again  can  the  world 
be  destroyed  from  that  source.  If 
the  fountains  of  the  deep  were  on 
the  earth  or  in  the  seas  then  they 
are  not  "broken  up."  If  they  were 
in  the  clouds,  they  were  not,  for  that 
source  still  exists.  Then  we  must 
believe  that  they  came  from  beyond 
the  clouds. 

With  the  fountain  of  the  great 
deep  placed  on  high — the  veritable 
waters  above  the  firmament — we  can 
readily  understand  why  the  "win- 
dows of  heaven  were  opened,"  and 
why  "all  the  fountains  of  the  great 
deep  were  broken  up."  The  rain- 
bow proclaims  these  facts  around 
the  circuit  of  the  earth. 

How  does  it  happen  that  the 
author  of  Genesis  relates  these  facts 
with  such  harmonious  accord,  with 
all  the  conditions  which  an  Annular 
arrangement  of  water  necessitated, 
if  the  idea  was  not  familiar  to  his 
mind? 

The  presence  of  upper  vapors  en- 
tering the  atmosphere  on  their  way 
to  the  earth  by  the  way  of  the  polar 
regions  necessitated  an  atmosphere 
of  greater  buoyancy  and  power,  and 
this  necessitated  greater  bodily 
frame.  Hence  it  is  said:  "There 


were  giants  in  those  days."  There 
were  giants  among  animals  as  well 
as  men. 

LEGENDS  OF  THE  DELUGE. 

Such  wide-spread  desolation  as  is 
accredited  to  the  deluge  of  Noah 
must  have  made  an  indelible  im- 
pression upon  the  human  mind. 
We  would  naturally  look  for  refer- 
ences to  it  in  Aryan,  Phonecian, 
Greek  and  Hebrew  history.  They 
were  the  guardians  of  civilization. 
It  is  not  difficult  to  co-link  even  the 
rudest  form  of  the  flood  traditions 
with  the  terrible  visitation  so  graph- 
ically related  by  Moses.  Its  shadow 
will  never  pass  from  the  historic 
page. 

Men  may  criticise  and  ridicule 
the  narrative  given  by  Moses,  yet 
the  fact  remains  that  a  self-sustain- 
ing history  is  there;  and  the  com- 
bined sophistry  of  all  time  cannot 
shake  it. 

An  account  of  that  great  catas- 
trophe is  found  in  the  mythological 
narratives  and  traditional  history  of 
nearly  or  quite  every  people  and 
tribe  of  Adam's  race. 

It  is  found  among  the  Egyptians, 
Chaldeans,  Greeks,  Cythians  and 
Celtic  tribes.  It  has  been  discov- 
ered among  the  Peruvians'  and  Mex- 
icans; the  aborigines  of  Cuba,  of 
North  America  and  the  South  Sea 
Islands.  Even  the  inhabitants  of 
Alaska  preserve  a  tradition  of  the 
deluge;  and  all  point  unmistakably 
to  the  deluge  of  Noah. 

Recent  investigations  in  the  ruins 
of  Ninevah,  Babylon  and  in  ancient 
cities  of  Egypt  confirm  it  by  tablets 
preserved  as  veritable  books. 

Tradition  as  she  sits  amidst  the 
crumbling  ages  of  the  past  sings  it 
in  our  ears,  while  the  sound  of  a  uni- 
versal deluge  has  gone  out  through 


10 


THE  YAILAN  Oil  ANNULAR  SYSTEM. 


all  the  earth.  It  would  require  vol- 
umes to  present  these  traditions 
alone. 

AUGMENTATION  OF  OCEANIC  WATERS. 

Some  portions  of  the  earth  are 
sinking  while  others  are  rising.  The 
millions  of  cubic  feet  of  matter  de- 
posited daily  in  the  oceans  by  rivers 
would  be  sufficient  to  accomplish 
this.  Every  pound  of  matter  thus 
transferred,  is  an  energy  transferred. 
In  the  course  of  1,000  years,  1,000 
square  miles  of  oceanic  bottom 
would  be  covered  to  the  depth  of 
240  feet. 

This  enormous  pressure  on  the 
underlying  rocks  is  so  much  trans- 
ferred energy  converted  into 
mechanical  heat.  This  must  ex- 
pand the  rocks  thus  under  in- 
creased pressure.  If  this  sediment 
were  not  borne  into  the  ocean 
along  the  Atlantic  coast  and  spread 
out  over  vast  areas  it  would  be 
lined  with  mountains  and  volcanoes, 
as  that  of  the  Mediterranean  sea; 
but  being  spread  out  over  an  ex- 
tensive floor  it  prevents  their  form- 
ation by  lateral  pressure. 

Volcanoes  are  located  where  sedi- 
ments can  accumulate,  and  are 
doubtless  the  result  of  this  accumu- 
lation. Sixty- five  thousand  feet  of 
steel  blocks  piled  one  upon  another 
would  cause  sufficient  heat  to  melt 
the  lower  ones  or  reduce  them  to  a 
plastic  state.  The  lava  that  issues 
from  a  volcano  is  the  deep  bed-rock 
fused  by  pressure  produced  by 
lateral  expansion.  Accumulating 
sediments  cause  rock  expansion  in 
some  regions,  and  being  removed 
from  others,  causes  contraction. 
Expansion  elevates  the  earth's  crust; 
contraction  lowers  it. 

A  downfall  of  water  that  would 
raise  the  ocean  fifty  feet  above  its 


present  level  would  cause  an  ex- 
pansion that  no  rocks  could  resist, 
and  its  lateral  pressure  must  result 
in  mountain  making.  The  New 
England  coast  has  been  elevated  in 
comparatively  recent  times.  The 
St.  Lawrence  is  so  new  that  it  has 
not  yet  swept  its  channel  clean. 

From  Nova  Scotia  to  Florida  and 
around  the  whole  boundary  of  the 
Gulf  of  Mexico  are  the  submerged 
shore-lines  of  a  former  continent. 
Many  miles  oat  the  lead-line  sud- 
denly plunges  from  about  100  fath- 
oms to  from  200  to  1,500  fathoms. 
So  around  the  British '  Isles,  the 
coast  of  Norway,  and  that  of  North- 
ern Europe  and  Asia.  South  Amer- 
ica, Africa  and  the  Pacific  present 
the  same  characteristics.  The 
course  of  a  submerged  continent  has 
been  traced  in  mid-ocean. 

SUMMARY. 

The  Vailan  Theory  is  proved, 

1.  By    mathematical    reasoning 
and  philosophic  necessity. 

2.  By  the  mineral  character  and 
philosophical  deposition  of  strata. 

3.  By  analagous  facts  relating  to 
other   worlds,     belted    and    ringed 
under  the  reign  of  law. 

4.  By  the  action  of  the  moon. 

5.  By  the  records  of  man  whose 
ancient   writings    declare,  and    re- 
declare,  again  and  again,  the  truth 
of  this  claim.     The  first  eight  chap- 
telrs    of   Genesis  alone    afford  proof 
sufficient  if  all  else  failed. 

6.  The  waters  on  the  earth  them- 
selves declare  the  fact. 

GEOGRAPHICAL    FEATURES. 

The  first  and  most  important  ele- 
ment of  the  earth's  crust  is  carbon. 
Of  the  more  than  60,000  feet  of 
aqueous  beds  there  are  probably 
none  that  it  does  not  enter  into  as 
an  important  factor.  It  was  first 


THE  VAILAN  OR  ANNULAR  SYSTEM. 


11 


driven  from  the  earth  by  intense 
heat.  The  burning  world  was  a 
smoking  world.  The  unconsumed 
carbon  commingled  with  the  Annu- 
lar vapois  in  the  form  q£- black, 
sooty,  pitchy  matter.  This  was  de- 
posited at  the  time  of  the  deluge, 
and  the  waters  that  stood  in  seas, 
lakes  and  ponds  deposited  it  as  a 
layer  of  black,  carbonaceous  mud 
upon  their  bottoms.  It  may  be 
found  in  ten  thousand  lakes  planted 
in  the  Drift  deposits  in  North  Amer- 
ica and  Northern  Europe. 

A  black  carbonaceous  soil  covers 
many  Western  States  which  were 
once  covered  by  a  vast  inland  sea. 
This  sea  was  bounded  on  the  west 
by  the  Rocky  Mountains;  ssouth  by 
the  Ozark  Mountains  and  the  moun- 
tains of  Tennessee  and  Kentucky, 
and  emptied  its  waters  into  Lake 
Michigan. 

This  greal  inland  sea  finally  be- 
came a  fresh-water  body.  The  re- 
mains of  the  mastodon,  mammoth 
and  other  pachyderms  of  inter- 
diluvian  times,  as  well  as  fresh 
water  shells  are  found.  It  made 
for  itself  two  great  outlets,  the 
Mississippi  and  the  St.  Lawrence 
rivers.  This  inland  sea  must  have 
been  elevated  700  or  800  feet  above 
the  ocean,  and  was  surrounded  on 
all  sides  by  walls,  and  covered  an 
area  of  at  least  500,000  square 
miles.  We  must  conclude  that 
some  great  down-rush  of  waters 
caused  it  to  break  its  bounds  in  two 
directions  at  the  same  time. 

The  fall  of  waters  supplied  the 
black,  sooty  carbon  that  settled  to 
the  bottom  of  the  sea,  remaining 
but  a  few  inches  thick  on  the  hills, 
perhaps,  but  several  feet  in  the 
valleys,  and  is  the  source  of  the 
peat  bogs. 


GLACIAL  EPOCHS. 

Previous  to  the  glacial  record 
there  had  closed  a  long  period  of 
perpetual  spring.  The  primitive 
elephant,  and  many  of  his  congeners 
and  contemporaries,  fed  in  luxuri- 
ous forests  and  grassy  plains  toward 
the  north  pole,  which  are  now  cov- 
ered with  glaciers  grinding  their 
bones  to  dust.  Northern  regions 
which  for  untold  ages  had  been  cov- 
ered with  tropical  vegetation,  and 
animals  of  innumerable  forms,  began 
to  be  invaded  by  glaciers  which 
slowly  made  their  way  toward  the 
equator. 

The  only  way  glaciers  are  now 
formed  is  by  vapors  wafted  over 
them  from  adjacent  lands  warmed 
by  solar  heat;  but  they  were  not 
formed  that  way  during  the  glacial 
epochs,  but  by  the  declension  of  an- 
nular vapors.  Glacial  ice  cannot 
accumulate  extensively  now.  It 
-flows,  and  cannot  be  heaped  up 
largely,  its  rate  of  motion  being  pro- 
portionate to  the  slope  of  its  bed. 
The  source  of  those  sfctpws  which 
built  a  great  continental  ice  cap 
over  the  northern  hemisphere  must 
be  attributed  to  the  Annular  System. 
They  accumulated  in  the  St.  Law- 
rence valley  several  thousand  feet 
thick  and  towered  over  the  New 
England  mountains. 

Snow  seldom  falls  in  arctic  re- 
gions now.  Dr.  Kane  saw  sledge 
tracks  that  were  made  several  years 
previously.  How  then  did  those 
boundless  reaches  of  snow  and  ice 
accumulate  but  by  the  decent  of 
Annular  vapors? 

Animals  are  found  entombed  in 
the  frozen  soil  and  snows  under  the 
arctic  circle.  For  many  years  a 
large  trade  has  been  carried  on  in 
ivory,  by  Siberian  traders,  dug  from 


12 


THE  VAILAN  OR  ANNULAR  SYSTEM. 


the  frozen  soil.  Many  of  the  ani- 
mals, as  the  mammoth,  rhinoceros, 
etc.,  remain  undecayed,  and  in  their 
stomachs  and  between  their  teeth 
are  found  the  vegetation  upon 
which  they  fed.  And  even  the  cap- 
illary blood  vessels  still  retaining 
their  contents,  showing  that  there 
was  not  the  slightest  decomposition, 
but  that  the  catastrophe  which  over- 
whelmed them  was  sudden.  The 
climate  was  changed  as  by  a  stroke, 
which  congealed  and  sealed  the  land 
in  ice,  locking  the  mammoth  and 
other  animals  therein. 

Had  those  animals  not  been  frozen 
soon  as  killed  purification  and  de- 
composition must  have  taken  place. 
Nothing  but  the  downrush  of  snows 
from  the  earths  Annular  System 
could  have  done  this.  These  re- 
mains are  dredged  from  the  north- 
ern oceans,  and  they  are  also  found 
fossilized  over  large  portions  of  Si- 
beria; in  both  cases  being  doubtless, 
dropped  from  icebergs.  Tne  mam- 
moth is  found  frozen  in  a  glacier; 
the  glacier  was  originally  snow;  the 
destruction  must  necessarily  have 
been  sudden. 

If  not  more  than  one  tenth  of  the 
waters  now  upon  the  earth  had  fall- 
en in  the  form  of  snow  it  would 
have  covered  the  entire  land  surface 
of  the  globe  more  than  30,000  feet 
deep;  and  as  one  tenth  must  have 
fallen  in  polar  regions  it  briugs  out 
the  Annular  Theory  as  a  competent 
source.  The  sudden  fall  of  snow 
sufficient  to  overwhelm  a  semitrop- 
ical  world  could  not  accumulate  in 
the  atmosphere  as  it  now  does,  and 
fall  therefrom.  It  must  have  come 
from  a  source  beyond  the  atmos- 
phere. 

The  over-canopying  fund  of  vapors 
acted  as  a  mighty  robe  to  the  earth, 


keeping  out  the  cold  of  space,  and 
equally  distributing  solar  heat  over 
the  globe  and  causing  terrestial 
warmth.  The  animals  were  much 
larger  than  their  representatives  are 
now,  showing  that  the  atmosphere 
was  heavier  and  posessed  more 
bouyant  power  by  the  pressure  of  a 
vast  ocean  of  vapors  in  the  higher 
regions. 

The  downfall  of  \\  ater  c  lused  con- 
tinual upheavals,  and  mountain 
making,  which  is  proved  by  finding 
marine  fossils  along  the  seashore, 
and  elsewhere  far  above  the  ocean. 
Terraces  of  the  Champlain  epoch  in 
New  England  that  must  have  been 
formed  in  the  sea,  are  now  found 
elevated  hundreds  of  feet. 

All  geologists  agree  that  there 
have  been  many  floods  upon  the 
earth  The  great  telluric  glaciers  of 
recent  geologic  times  .were  melted 
under  the  tropic  influence  of  the  An- 
nular vapors  resulting  in  deluges. 

Under  the  vast  pressure  of  the 
accumulated  waters  the  plastic 
ocean  bed  goes  down  and  forces  its 
foundation  under  the  continent  by 
lateral  pressure,  and  causes  upturned 
and  crumpled  strata  in  many  places, 
and  also  volcanic  phenomena. 

REVIEW  OF  THE  GEOLOGIC  RECORD. 

The  geologist  has  never  yet  found 
the  base  of  the  aqueous  rocks,  nor 
can  he  know  how  deep  their  foun- 
dations extend.  When  the  Lauren- 
tian  stratified  beds  were  formed 
there  was  an  ocean  on  the  earth.  A 
portion  of  the  tellurio-cosmic  waters 
had  fallen. 

In  the  boulder  and  conglomerate 
rocks  found  in  every  age  of  geology 
there  is  proof  that  glaciers  invaded 
the  earth  after  the  declension  of 
each  Annular  stratum.  The  Annular 


THE  VAILAN  OR  ANNULAR  SYSTEM. 


13 


'  matter  extended  in  comparatively 
narrow  belts  over  the  equator.  As 
the  lower  stratum  was  attracted  to- 
ward the  earth  it  gradually  spread 
out  toward  the  polar  regions,  caus- 
ing a  warm  climate  all  over  the 
earth,  and  melting  the  snows  and 
glaciers  at  the  poles.  This 
lasted  untold  ages  until  a  tropic 
and  semi-tropical  vegetation  spread 
over  the  earth.  After  its  fall  arctic 
cold  invaded  the  north  and  south 
poles,  pushing  a  vast  ice  cap  toward 
the  equator,  which  remained  until 
another  stratum  of  annular  vapors 
spread  over  the  globe.  These  ages 
of  warmth  and  ages  of  cold  contin- 
ued to  alternate  until  the  fall  of  the 
last  ring  of  vapors,  which  took  place 
at  the  time  of  the  Noachian  deluge, 
causing  that  catastrophe. 

The  sudden  destruction  of  life,  at 
the  end  of  each  age  in  geology, 
must  have  been  caused  by  sudden 
cold.  The  waters  reaching  the 
earth  at  the  poles  must  cause  re- 
frigeration; must  cause  excessive 
floods;  must  cause  extermination  of 
specific  forms  of  life ;  must  cause  new 
distribution  and  condition  of  ocean- 
ic waters,  and  caused  great  folding 
and  crumpling  of  strata. 

In  the  disolving  of  glaciers  a  vast 
pressure  was  lifted  from  the  conti- 
nents and  transferred  to  the  ocean 
beds,  causing  them  to  go  down  and 
the  land  to  be  elevated. 

SEED  BED  OF  ORGANISMS  . 

From  the  days  of  Homer  until  the 
present  time  we  read  of  dust-storms 
of  living  organisms  falling  upon  the 
earth,  and  colored  snow,  the  color- 
ing matter  being  microscopic  forms 
of  life.  The  dust  is  doubtless  of 
cosmic  origin.  There  must  be  mi- 
cro-cosmic clouds  moving  in  inter- 


planetary space,  which  meeting  the 
earth  in  its  path,  are  precipitated 
upon  its  surface. 

We  can  scarcely  conceive  of  mat- 
ter anywhere  without  associating  it 
with  living  forms.  The  outermost 
vapors  of  the  annular  system,  which 
fell  in  the  time  of  Noah,  remained 
on  high  for  unknown  millions  of 
years,  receiving  constant  additions 
of  meteoric  and  cosmic  dust  from 
without.  As  the  gaseous  envelope 
that  now  surrounds  our  earth  con- 
tains living  organisms,  we  must  be- 
lieve" the  annular  matter  did  also, 
and  to  a  much  greater  degree. 

If  Jupiter's  belted  system  had 
long  ago  decended  to  the  body  of 
that  planet,  so  that  we  could  gaze 
upon  the  continents  and  seas  as  we 
do  those  of  Mars,  we  would  conclude 
that  they  swarmed  with  life.  An 
incomplete  world  must  contain  in- 
complete or  primordal  life-forms; 
forms  that  in  time  must  develop. 
In  yellow  snow,  dust  showers,  "blood 
rains,"  etc.  we  have  evidence  that 
organic  forms  are  natural  accom- 
paniments of  the  nebulous  and  ele- 
mentary forms  of  matter. 

Spider  showers  are  well  authenti- 
cated. Sometimes  the  air  is  filled 
with  their  gossamer  threads  upon 
which  they  mount  to  unknow  depths 
of  space,  where  they  live.  If  spiders 
can  live  in  the  air,  descend  to  the 
earth  and  live  there  for  a  time,  and 
toads  can  live  for  untold  ages  im- 
mured in  solid  rock,  they  could  live 
in  belts  of  aqueous  and  mineral 
matter.  The  manner  in  which  or- 
ganisms have  succeeded  each  other 
on  the  earth  as  revealed  by  the  geol- 
ogic records  demands  that  the  an- 
nular system  was  the  cradle  of  in- 
fant life,  the  propagating  beds  in 


14 


THE  VAILAN  OR  ANNULAR  SYSTEM. 


which  the  life-germs  were  placed  by 
the  great  Gardner  of  Nature. 

It  is  as  reasonable  to  suppose  that ; 
germs  took  form  in  water  under  the  j 
creative  hand  before  they  fell  to  the  ; 
earth  as  afterward,  and  when  we  see  j 
that  each  downfall  brought  new  | 
life-forms  which  exhibit  no  specific  i 
or  generic  relation  to  previous  I 
forms,  we  are  forced  to  admit  that  j 
either  the  seed  beds  of  the  Annular  ; 
system  provided  the  undeveloped 
organisms,  or  there  was  a  special 
creation  at  each  period. 

In  the  Silurian  age  there  was  an 
ocean  containing  heavy  calcarious 
matter;  in  the  Devonian  silicious 
and  silicio-calcarious  matter;  in  the 
Carboniferous  carbonacious  matter, 
and  each  ocean  had  its  character- 
istic life-forms.  But  if  all  the 
waters  fell  at  one  time,  how  is  it 
possible  for  each  age  to  have  had 
an  ocean  containing  characteristic 
minerals?  These  characteristic  min- 
erals fell  with  each  ring,  which 
marked  the  ages  of  geology,  des- 
troying previous  life-forms  and  in- 
troducing new  ones.  Eozoic  rocks 
were  laid  down  40,000  feet  thick. 
Upon  these  were  piled  Silurian  65,- 
000  feet  thick;  on  these  Devonian 
rocks  15,000  feet,  and  then  comes 
17,000  feet  of  Carboniferous  rocks, 
each  age  having  characteristic  fos- 
sils and  mineral  deposits.  As  these 
deposits  were  laid  down  by  the  sea, 
why  do  they  so  widely  differ  in  their 
composition  if  they  all  fell  at  the 
same  time  from  above!  The  Pots- 
dam sandstone  underlies  the  Silur- 
ian rocks.  It  spread  from  the  Can- 
adas  to  Texas,  from  the  Alleghanies 
to  the  Rocky  mountains,  and  prob- 
ably forms  a  casement  around  the 
globe.  It  is  8,000  feet  thick,  and 
shows  a  mechanical  and  rapid  accu- 


mulation, pointing  unmistakably  to 
the  down  fall  of  a  silicious  ring 

The  Annular  theory  admits  of  the 
universal  eroding  power  of  rivers 
and  waves;  the  transporting  power 
of  currents  and  strata  building  from 
detrital  matter.  But  waves  can  do 
nothing  unless  supplied  with  matter. 
Where  did  they  get  the  crystalline, 
granulated  and  infusorial  matter  to 
spread  over  the  floor  of  the  Silurian 
ocean?  Great  beds  of  metals  have 
been  laid  down  as  regularity  strati- 
fied deposits  which  could  not  have 
been  borne  from  Archaean  terranes. 

CARBON-  STRATA  DEPOSITED  AS  AN   AQUEOUS 
SEDIMENT. 

Carbon  composing  a  peat  bed  is 
simply  unconsumed  carbon.  The 
carbon  or  smoke  that  arises  from 
every  chimney  and  furnace  when 
measurably  shut  up  from  immediate 
union-  with  oxygen,  remains  an  un- 
burnt  fuel  precisely  the  same  in 
kind  as  the  unburnt  carbon  fuel  of 
the  peat  bogs.  Were  we  to  collect 
the  unburnt  carbon  from  our  chim- 
neys in  piles,  where  moisture  and 
air  could  have  free  access,  it  would 
take  fire  spontaneously  and  burn, 
just  as  peat  dug  from  the  bog  some- 
times takes  fire  and  burns. 

The  millions  of  fires  from  foun- 
dries, volcanoes,  etc.,  are  forming 
fuel  wherever  soot  is  formed,  and 
were  it  not  for  the  ever  active  oxy- 
gen of  the  air,  it  would  all  descend 
upon  the  earth  as  fuel  and  become 
incorporated  in  forming  sediment- 
ary beds.  This  is  our  claim  for  the 
coal,  which  as  unconsumed  carbon 
arose  beyond  the  reach  of  destroy- 
ing oxygen,  from  the  heated,  glow- 
ing furnace  of  our  globe,  and  in 
time  returned  to  the  earth. 

When  the  plant  dies  and  begins 


THE  VAILAN  OR  ANNULAR  SYSTEM. 


15 


to  decay  one  of  its  constituent  el- 
ements, carbon,  oxydizes  by  slow 
combustion  and  returns  to  the  air 
as  an  invisible  gas.  It  is  but  acci- 
dental when  a  particle  fails  «-to  be- 
come oxydized  and  remains  as  un- 
cousumed  carbon.  An  exceedingly 
small  part  of  vegetation  remains  un- 
burnt. 

Coal  veins,  which  are  from  one 
foot  to  three  hundred  feet  thick, 
would  make  a  stratum  around  the 
earth  ten  feet  thick.  Fifty  pounds 
of  coal  will  yield  10,000  gallons  of 
carbonic  acid.  Then  calling  eight 
gallons  equal  to  one  cubic  foot  the 
astonishing  fact  comes  out  that  the 
coal  beds  actually  draw  from  the 
atmosphere  an  ocean  of  carbonic 
acid  which  would  have  covered  the 
globe  to  the  depth  of  12,500  feet, 
which  would  have  destroyed  all  an- 
imal life.  Even  three  or  four  per 
cent,  of  carbonic  acid  in  our  present 
atmosphere  would  be  fatal  to  an- 
imal life.  Hence  it  is  clear  that 
coal  cannot  be  attributed  to  .vegeta- 
ble origin. 

CONCLUSIONS  REACHED. 

The  following  conclusions  are 
clearly  deducible: 

1.  The  Annular  system  was  a  re- 
gion of   microscopic  life   and   infu- 
sorial forms.     Coal  being  deposited 
by  sea-water  carried   down   with   it 
marine    forms,     and    others    settled 
upon  its  surface. 

2.  The    carbon    deposits     must 
have  borne  down  a  vast  amount   of 
marine    vegetation     and    buried   it 
upon  the  sea   bottom.      In   swamp 
marshes  the  vegetation  would  have 
been  entirely  different. 

3.  When  a  carbon  fall  was  borne 
to  the  seas  and  settled  where   lime- 
stone strata  prevailed  it  would  indi- 


cate great  distance  from  the  shore, 
and  here  the  roof  shales  of  the 
coal  must  be  necessarily  free  from 
land  fossils.  Coal  beds  amongst 
sandstone  strata  indicate  depositions 
near  shore,  and  may  contain  land 
fossils. 

4.  The  coal  beds  must  be   more 
heavily  developed  toward  polar   re- 
gions, and  most   free   from   impuri- 
ties. 

5.  All    carbon    downfalls    must 
have  been  attended  by    great   cata- 
clysms of   snow,    or   water,  or  both. 

6.  A  coal  vein   deposited   near  a 
volcano,  or  mechanical  heat  arising 
therefrom  would  be  metamorphosed 
into  heavier   and   harder   forms   of 
carbon.      But    as    all   grades   must 
have  existed  in  the  Annular  system/ 
as  primitive  distillates,   all  of   these 
forms  may  be  found  in  lands  where 
no    strata    disturbance    has    taken 
place. 

7.  The  heavy  carbon,  as  the  an- 
thracite and  semi-bituminous  parti- 
cles would  be   borne   to    the   deep 
seas,  while  the   lighter   would   float 
into  shallow  water.     Hence  a   sub- 
marine valley  might  have  a  deposit 
of   anthracite  while    a   neighboring 
bed  on  an  elevation  might  be   bitu- 
minous. 

8.  In  both  northern    and   south- 
ern hemispheres  the  coal   must   be 
more  valuable  as  we  proceed   from 
the  equator. 

9.  There  must  have  been  carbon 
falls  in  all  ages,  and   the   first   were 
the  purest  and  the   best,   while   the 
last  to  descend  must  have  been  the 
lightest  and  poorest,    and   must   be 
found  near  the  surface,    or   are   the  . 
foundations  of   recent  peat  bogs. 

Peat  vegetation,  or  moss  known 
by  the  generic  name  of  Sphagnous, 
has  led  many  to  believe  it  to  be  the 


16 


THE  VAILAN  OR  ANNULAR  SYSTEM. 


origin  of  that  product.  But  these 
sphagnous  mosses  could  never  have 
planted  themselves  over  the  medial 
and  colder  latitudes  if  the  carbon 
beds  necessary  to  sustain  them  had 
not  previously  been  planted  there. 
If  coal  and  peat  are  vegetable  •  pro- 
ducts they  should  exist  in  greater 
abundance  in  tropical  regions;  but 
they  are  found  in  limited  quantity 
there. 

IS  COAL  A  VEGETABLE  PRODUCT? 

The  usually  accepted  theory  con- 
cerning the  origin  of  coal  is  that  it 
was  formed  from  an  ancient  vegeta- 
tion that  grew  largely  in  peat  and 
swamp  marshes.  This  theory  the 
Vailan  system  overthrows. 
v  Every  atom  of  the  great  mass  of 
carbon  now  forming  the  coal  de- 
posits must  have  been  a  distilled 
product  of  a  primitive  igneous  pro- 
cess before  the  plant  could  possibly 
appropriate  it.  Every  intelligent 
chemist  knows  that  the  great  tel- 
luric gas  furnace  of  primitive  times 
was  competent  to  produce  all  the 
carbon  now  found  in  the  crust  of 
the  earth.  Soot,  that  sometimes 
takes  fire  in  our  chimneys,  is  de- 
posited in  infinitesimal  smoke  par- 
ticles. Hence,  smoke  from  burning 
carbon  is  simply  a  fuel  which  makes 
it  evident  that  the  smoke  which 
arose  from  the  igneous  earth  was  a 
fuel  hydro-carbon."  The  dark  belts 
of  Saturn  and  Jupiter  are  doubtless 
strata  of  carbon  revolving  about 
those  planets. 

If  the  Vailan  theory  is  true  the 
graphites  and  heavier  forms  of  car- 
•bon  were  the  first  to  fall  upon  the 
earth  after  the  igneous  period  was 
passed,  and  will  be  found  in  its 
first  aqueous  beds,  and  generally 
unassociated  with  fossil  vegetation. 


This  is  precisely  what  we  do  find. 
Both  Dana  and  Dtuvson  bear  testi- 
mony to  the  fact  that  graphite  is  a 
very  common  mineral  in  the  older 
beds,  and  that  the  primitive  carbon 
beds  are  equal  in  gravity  to  that  of 
similar  areas  in  the  carboniferous 
system. 

Why  no  fossil  plants  in  the  earlier 
coal  deposits?  Because  no  plants 
grew  at  that  time.  Then  we  must 
look  for  its  origin  elsewhere  than  in 
plants.  If  coal  be  a  vegetable  pro- 
duct, so  is  graphite.  To  say  that 
animal  organism  aided  in  the  pro- 
cess simply  adds  to  the  difficulty, 
since  it  is  carbon  that  makes  the 
organism  and  not  the  organism  the 
carbon.  But  suppose  fossil  plants 
were  found  in  graphite,  would  it  be 
any  more  evidence  that  they  formed 
it  than  that  they  formed  clay  or 
sandrock  in  which  they  are  found? 
The  simple  fact  that  organic  fossils 
are  found  in  carbon  beds  changed 
to  carbon  affords  no  evidence  that 
these  organisms  made  the  beds. 

We  find  vegetable  remains  in  coal 
seams  just  as  we  find  them  in  any 
other  reck.  A  coal  plant  as  a 
lepidodendron,  may  begin  in  the 
lower  clay,  and  pierce  through  a 
coal  seam  into  the-  overhanging 
shale  and  sandstone.  In  the  first  it 
is  a  clay  fossil,  in  the  second  a  car- 
bonaceous fossil,  and  in  the  third  a 
silicious  fossil.  _The  fact  is  the 
trunk  of  a  tree  in  an  upright  posi- 
tion in  a  coal  bed,  which  is  quite 
common,  proves  that  the  coal  formed 
around  it  rapidly.  It  would  require 
forty  feet  of  vegetable  debris  to 
make  five  feet  of  carbon.  Some 
coal  seams  are  300  feet  thick,  which 
would  require  at  least  2,400  feet  of 
vegetable  growth  in  its  formation, 
which  is  an  impossibility.  As  a 


THE  VAILAN  OE  ANNULAR  SYSTEM. 


17 


vegetable  product  coal  would  form 
very  slowly,  but  from  the  Vailan 
system  would  require  but  a  few 
hours,  or  days  at  most,  to  lay  it 
down. 

Plants  found  in  coal  burn  with 
difficulty,  which  ought  not  to  be 
true  if  they  contained  a  resinous 
sap,  or  bituminous  matter.  In  many 
instances  you  can  find  a  dozen  fossil 
plants  in  the  overlying  clay  to 
where  you  can  find  one  in  coal. 
They  are  clay  fossils  because  they 
are  imbedded  in  clay,  same  as  fos- 
sils in  coal  are  carbon  because  im- 
bedded in  carbon. 

If  coal  is  compressed  peat,  as  some 
would  have  us  believe,  why  do  we 
not  find  fibres  runnning  vertically 
through  it?  You  may  examine  peat 
after  a  pressure  of  twenty  tons  to 
the  square  inch  has  been  exerted, 
and  yet  the  vertical  structure  of 
the  mass  will  be  apparent.  Since 
we  find  abundance  of  rootlets  run- 
ning in  all  directions,  vertically  as 
well  as  horizontally  in  the  under 
clays  of  coal  beds  it  is  evident  that 
coal  is  not  a  metamorphosed  peat. 

Imagine  an  expanse  of  marshes 
100,000  square  miles  in  extent,  cov- 
ered with  calamites,  ferns,  sigillaria 
lepidodendra  remaining  motionless 
for  countless  centuries,  and'  then 
suddenly  sinking  beneath  the  waves 
of  the  sea  in  order  to  receive  a  sear 
formed  bed  for  a  covering;  and  in  the 
universal  burial  to  preserve  but  a 
few  fossils,  and  they  in  a  horizontal 
position,  while  in  the  clays  immedi- 
ately above  and  below  the  coal  beds 
they  are  found  in  profusion;  that  in 
due  time  the  vast  area  arose  from 
its  baptism,  and  on  the  thin  layer 
of  clay  millions  of  the  same  plants 
grew  until  they  formed  another  bed 
of  coal,  when  it  sinks  again  beneath 


the  waves,  and  this  oscillation  con- 
tinued until  it  had  been  buried 
twenty,  forty  or  one  hundred  times, 
and  you  have  the  old  theory  of  how 
coal  was  formed. 

But  if  the  old  theory  concerning 
the  formation  of  coal  is  correct,  how 
did  it  occur  that  the  earth  in  rising 
out  of  the  ocean  stopped  each  time 
in  the  right  place  for  swamp  veg- 
etation to  accumulate?  According 
to  the  highest  authority  coal  is  not 
formed  from  sea-plants,  for  they 
cannot  emit  any  considerable 
amount  of  caloric,  but  it  is  the  pro- 
duct of  land  plants.  Then  why  do 
we  find  coal  scattered  over  a  vast 
area  of  sea  bottom? 

The  structure  of  continents  show 
that  they  have  remained  such  from 
their  first  formation.  Some  of  the 
geologic  formations,  as  the  Carbon- 
iferous-conglomerates, took  place  all 
over  the  earth  at  the  same  time. 
How  could  this  be  except  it  came 
from  the  Annular  system? 

Were  we  to  have  a  shower  of  car- 
bon dust  it  would  settle  to  the  bot- 
tom of  the  sea  all  over  the  irregular- 
ities of  the  same.  Then  sand  beds 
accumulating  for  ages  would  settle 
over  it.  These  would  form  a  greater 
thickness  in  some  places  than  in 
others;  hence  a  succeeding  fall  of 
carbon  settling  upon  the  ocean  floor 
would  not  form  a  bed  exactly  par- 
allel with  the  first.  This  is  precisely 
what  we  find  to  be  true  in  the  car- 
bon deposits.  The  distance  in  coal 
seams  may  vary  from  twenty  feet  in 
one  place  to  forty  feet  in  another 
place  in  the  same  neighborhood, 
which  is  the  result  of  irregularity 
in  the  ocean  floor. 

Bowlders  are  found  in  coal  seams 
which  means  that  coal  beds  have 
been  formed  under  water;  and  if  a 


18 


THE  VAILAN  OR  ANNULAB  SYSTEM. 


foreign  bowlder  that  the  coal  seam 
was  formed  at  the  bottom  of  the 
ocean.  Bowlders  have  been  found 
in  the  middle  of  coal  seams  with 
glacial  marks  upon  them,  showing 
that  they  have  been  dropped  from 
icebergs  into  the  forming  coal  beds 
at  the  bottom  of  the  sea.  Foreign 
water- worn  bowlders  are  frequently 
found  in  coal  beds. 

Stratas  of  coal  may  be  seperated 
by  layers  of  clay  not  more  than  half 
an  inch  in  thickness;  how  could  veg- 
etation take  root  in  so  thin  a  layer 
of  clay  sufficient  to  form  the  over- 
lying coal  seam  of  probably  several 
feet?  Suppose  a  great  carbon  fund 
should  float  from  the  Arctic  ocean 
into  Hudson  Bay.  It  would  settle 
upon  an  undulating  bottomland  if  a 
flood  of  muddy  water  from  the  sur- 
rounding rivers  should  empty  into 
the  bay  while  the  carbon  bed  was 
forming,  a  thin  clay  bed  would  be 
the  result.  This  might  continue  as 
long  as  the  carbon  was  brought 
from  the  Arctic  regions. 

The  floating  mass  of  primitive 
carbon  clouds  after  they  entered 
the  atmosphere  and  floated  away  for 
centuries,  perhaps,  toward  the  polar 
regions  in  their  efforts  to  reach  the 
earth,  became  a  tissue  of  evolving 
vegetable  organisms  and  vegetable 
forms.  Take  fresh  soot  from  a  fur- 
nace soon  as  it  is  formed,  subject  it 
to  hot  vapors  from  boiling  waters 
and  store  it  away  in  an  open  vessel 
of  water,  and  you  will  soon  see  veg- 
etable and  animal  organisms  start 
into  being.  Then  why  not  find  or- 
ganisms in  revolving  soot  clouds  in 
the  Annular  system? 

Marine  vegetation  exists  on  the 
sea  bottom,  and  a  carbon  sediment 
rapidly  accumulating  would  certain- 
ly involve  it. 


Under  almost  all  the  carbon  veins 
lies  a  deposit  of  fire  clay.  Strange 
that  adjoining  a  highly  combustible 
bed,  a  substance  should  be  invari- 
ably planted  that  is  so  refractory  as 
to  be  used  for  crucibles  in  fusing 
almost  every  known  metal !  In  this 
bed  lies  involved  a  prof-use  marine 
vegetation,  and  the  preservation  of 
its  delicate  lineaments  proves  that 
it  was  suddenly  involved.  It  is 
more  generally  present  under  coal 
veins  that  are  more  distant  from  the 
tropics,  and  invariably  in  the  most 
distant  ones.  The  fire  clay-dust 
sublimed  in  the  great  telluric  cruci- 
ble arose  to  commingle  with  primi- 
tive vapors  and  returned  with  them. 
When  a  carbon  fall  occurred  the 
clay  matter  being  of  greater  specific 
gravity  was  the  first  to  find  its  way 
to  the  ocean  floor. 

This  fire  clay  is  found  under  beds 
of  primitive  graphite  where  no  veg- 
etation is  involved,  and  therefore 
cannot  be  a  vegetable  distillation. 
It  is  found  where  glacial  action  is 
unknown,  and  cannot  be  mud  pul- 
verized by  moving  ice.  Every  one 
of  the  more  than  seventy  coal  seams 
of  the  Nova  Scotia  regions  has  its 
characteristic  clay-bed.  When  we 
see  trees  standing  in  and  surround- 
ed by  this  clay  we  are  forced  to  ad- 
mit a  rapid  accumulation. 
•  Limestone  is  a  deep  sea  forma- 
tion and  the  Vaijan  system  demands 
that  standing  trees  should  not  be 
found  in  it.  Only  such  limestone 
formation  or  strata  as  were  deposit- 
ed as  mechanical  precipitation  could 
be  formed  in  shallow  waters,  especi- 
ally in  regions"  beyond  the  tropics. 
A  limestone  stratum  deposited 
among  shore  deposits  or  continental 
detritus  points  directly  to  Annular 
origin  and  vegetable  fossils  will  oc- 


THE  VAILAN  OR  ANNULAR  SYSTEM. 


19 


cur  in  the  upper  clays.  Here  geol- 
ogists have  an  opportunity  to  prove 
or  disprove  the  Annular  problem. 

Coal  and  peat  are  not  found  in 
the  tropics  where  they  ought  to  be 
found  if  vegetation  produced  them. 
And  if  they  could  be  found  there  it 
would  sweep  the  Vailan  system  from 
its  foundations.  They  are  found, 
however,  just  where  this  system  says 
they  must  be  found.  Why  is  peat 
found  in  the  ocean,  and  in  the 
thousands  of  lakes  and  ponds  where 
no  peat  vegetation  is  now  growing? 
Suppose  we  find  a  peat  bed  forty 
feet  thick,  it  must  have  been  at  one 
time  a  lake  with  forty  feet  of  water, 
and  how  did  the  peat  begin  to  grow? 
Peat  forms  slowly  and  the  rains  and 
storms  would  have  worked  mud, 
etc.,  more  rapidly  into  it  than  the 
peat  would  have  filled  it.  It  would 
neither  have  grown  from  the  top 
nor  from  the  bottom.  The  founda- 
tion carbon  fell  from  the  Annular 
fund. 

METAMORPH1SM  OF  CARBON  BEDS. 

When  bituminous  or  lignitic  coal, 
or  even  peat  is  subjected  to  a  suffi- 
cient degree  of  heat  it  is  converted 
into  hard  coal  and  sometimes  into 
graphite.  From  this  source  some 
conclude  that  anthracite  and  all 
hard  coals  are  metamorphosed  beds 
of  soft  carbon.  But  how  about  the 
vast  beds  in  aqueous  crusts  hun- 
dreds of  miles  from  any  igneous 
agencies?  All  anthracite  coal 
changed  from  bituminous  coal  will 
contain  a  greater  per  cent,  of  ash 
than  the  coal  from  which  it  is  de- 
rived. If  it  does  not  it  is  evidence 
that  it  never  was  bituminous  coal. 

Let  us  suppose  a  heavy  fall  of 
Annular  carbon  in  the  north  At- 
lantic ocean,  and  '  that  the  Appala- 


chian mountains  were  again  under 
the  sea.  The  carbon  carried  by  the 
ocean  currents  southward  would 
fall  to  the  sea  bottom  in  the  more 
quiet  waters.  The  heavy  or  anthra- 
cite dust  would  reach  the  bottom  in 
deep  waters  where  the  lighter  forms 
would  not.  Before  the  Appalachian 
upheaval,  the  eastern  base  of  the 
system  was  farther  out  in  the  sea, 
and  was  in  deeper  waters  than  the 
western.  The  constitution  of  the 
coal  itself,  the  condition  of  the  sea 
bottom  (sloping  from  the  coast  to 
the  deep  sea)  point  harmoniously  to 
the  annular  origin  of  the  carbon 
beds.  The  bituminous  dust  not  be- 
ing able  to  directly  settle  with  the 
anthracite  remained  longer  in  sus- 
pension which  accounts  for  its 
greater  amount  of  ash.  The  farth- 
er south  it  floated,  the  more  impure 
it  became.  The  heaviest  beds  of 
anthracite  will  be  found  in  the 
northern  part  of  the  great  plateau, 
and  principally  in  British  America 
if  the  Vailan  theory-is  true. 

Fossil  plants  in  coal  are  generally 
mineralized  charcoal,  and  are  diffi- 
cult of  combination.  If  the  bed 
was  composed  of  vegetable  produc- 
tion the  same  difficulty  would  cer- 
tainly characterize  the  mass.  Hence 
the  plant  is  simply  a  foreign  body 
in  a  bed  of  mineral  carbon.  Coal 
seams  have  become  so  hard  as  to  be 
planed  off  by  eroding  forces  directly 
after  being  laid  down,  or  before 
heavy  beds  had  accumulated  over 
them.  Thus  they  could  not  have 
been  formed  by  vegetable  peat. 

TERTIARY  COALS. 

Extensive  coal  beds  in  Asia  are 
probably  Tertiary,  while  the  Vast 
carbon  beds  among  the  Rocky 
Mountains,  and  underlying  the  vast 


20 


THE  VAILAN  OR  ANNULAE  SYSTEM. 


plain  to  the  west  of  these  moun- 
tains, were  formed  in  the  Tertiary 
period.  The  Rocky  Mountain  plat- 
eau on  which  the  coal  beds  are 
planted  existed  as  a  sea  bottom  over 
which  the  waters  from  the  Arctic 
world  rolled  during  the  Tertiary 
period.  The  Rocky  Mountain  re- 
gion was  then  sleeping  in  the  sea. 

The  Tertiary  beds  reach  from 
Mexico  to  the  Arctic  ocean,  proving 
that  currents  ran  toward  the  equator 
along  the  valley  of  the  McKenzie, 
bearing  into  southern  waters  what- 
ever fell  from  the  upper  world.  It 
is  thus  easy  to  see  how  the  vast  ex- 
panse of  this  western  world  became 
the  receptacle  of  Tertiary  carbon. 
Finding  no  Tertiary  coals  on  the 
Eastern  border  of  our  continent 
we  are  led  to  believe  that  a  narrow 
continent  stretched  from  America 
to  Europe  across  the  present  bed  of 
the  Atlantic  and  hindered  the  flow 
of  carbon  along  the  Atlantic  sea- 
board. It  is  now  conceded  by  geol- 
ogists that  such  an  isthmus  of  land 
reached  from  Newfoundland  to  the 
shores  of  Europe  during  the  Ter- 
tiary period.  This  being  true  a 
vast  fund  of  carbon  must  lie  at  the 
bottom  of  the  North  Atlantic. 

If  these  later  coals  had  been 
formed  out  of  vegetation  growing 
in  great  continental  swamps,  the 
same  opportunity  was  afforded  by 
the  southern  sea  borders  for  this 
swamp  vegetation.  And  so  from 
Long  Island  to  the  Rio  Grande. 
Why  then  do  we  not  find  it 
if  coal  is  of  vegetable  origin  ?  If 
the  vast  fund  of  the  lignitic  coals 
is  a  vegetable  production  it  was 
present  in  the  Tertiary  atmosphere 
as  a*  deadly  poison.  But  at  that 
time  both  land  and  sea  were  full  of 
air-breathing  mammals  and  mon- 


sters showing   conclusively   that   it 
was  not  there  in  such  a  condition. 

DEDUCTTOnS. 

1.  The  plant  when  subjected  to 
a  proper  mode    of      distillation   is 
made  to  yield  carbon  in  various  al- 
lotropic  forms.     So  of   any   mineral 
that  has  carbon  in   its  constitution. 
These  forms  of   carbon  were  placed 
in  the  crust  of   the  earth    after   the 
primitive  fires  had  died  out. 

2.  All  such  primitive  distillations 
existed  in  the    atmosphere   of     the 
incandescent  earth. 

3.  This  matter  as  it  declined  and 
mingled  with    the     atmosphere     in 
after  ages,  changed  from  the  ring  to 
the  belt  form,  and  overcanopied  the 
earth   and   fell   largely   in   regions 
outside  the  tropics. 

4.  The  heavier  forms   of  carbon 
fell   largely    in    the    earlier    ages; 
though   all   sections  of  the   system 
must  have  had  some  of   each   form. 

5.  All    ages   were   more    or  less 
characterized  by  carbon   falls,  and 
no  age  could  be  exclusively  carbon- 
iferous. 

6.  Carbon   falling   directly  into 
the  ocean  would  separate  into  heav- 
ier  and   lighter  forms    and    settle 
accordingly  in  higher  or  lower   ele- 
vations of  sea  bottom,  thus  explain- 
ing why  different  forms  of  coal  are 
found  in  the  same  proximate  horizon. 

7.  The  earliest  or  heavier  forms 
are  free  from  organic  remains,  and 
must  therefore  be  a  primitive  distil- 
lation.    The  other  carbon   beds  by 
their  associated  strata;  by   their  in- 
volved vegetation  and  other  organ- 
isms;   by    accompanying    clay-part- 
ings; by  involved  glacial   drift;  by 
latitudinal  gradation  in  quantity  of 
ash  and  specific  gravity;  by  charac- 
teristic absence  from  the  tropics  and 


THE  VAIL  AN  OR  ANNULAR  SYSTEM. 


21 


the  heavy  deposits  in  higher  lati- 
tudes; by  synchronous  formation  in 
all  continents;  by  their  evident  for- 
mation in  the  very  lap  and  bosom  of 
the  glacier  and  in  ice  and  flood;,  by 
the  fact  that  they  are  bituminous, 
oily  hydro-carbons,  and  by  a  mul- 
titude of  inconsistencies  and  impos- 
sibilities involved  in  the  vegetation 
theory,  have  been  shown  to  be  actual 
sedimentary  deposits,  and  therefore 
a  primitive  product. 

Since  then  there  is  not  a  feature 
connected  with  the  formation  of  coal 
that  is  not  readily  explained  by  the 
primitive  carbon  theory;  not  one 
that  philosophic  law  does  not  re- 
solve into  harmony  with  Annular 
declension  without  even  the  show  of 
conflict;  and  since  vegetarians  are 
forever  stumbling  upon  inexplicable 
difficulties — bowlders,  pebbles,  un- 
dulations, slopes,  ripple-marks,  clay- 
partings,  cann  el-coal  inseperably 
joined  with  bituminous  coal,  anthra- 
cites with  less  amount  of  ash,  marine 
impurities,  carbon  planted  in  Archa- 
ean beds,  air-bieathing  animals 
among  Tertiary  coals,  carbon 
dredged  from  the  ocean,  dug  from 
the  frozen  world,  and  innumerable 
other  objections  over  which  they  can 
not  climb,  the  vegetation  theory  can 
not  be  true. 

ANNULAR     DOWNFALL     IN      THE      TERTIARY 
OCEAN  OF  THE  NORTHERN  HEMISPHERE. 

If  the  Vadlian  theory  claims  are 
valid  the  beds  in  the  Rocky  Moun- 
tain Tertiary  must  present  the  fol- 
lowing features:  The  Cretaceous 
period  having  been  brought  to  a 
close  by  a  down-rush  of  waters  and 
snows  in  the  northern  hemisphere, 
a  stream  of  water  pouring  south- 
ward must  to  a  great  extent  have 
been  a  fresh-water  current,  and 


those  deposits  in  the  extreme  nor- 
thern beds  of  the  Rocky  Mountain 
region  must  be  largely  fresh-water 
accumulations.  Those  in  the  mid- 
dle of  this  region  must  be  to  a  less 
extent  fresh-water;  perhaps  some- 
times fresh  and  again  marine,  ow- 
ing to  changes  in  currents,  etc.,  and 
the  two  be  commingled,  while  in 
the  southern  part  the  beds  must 
be  almost  exclusively  marine.  For- 
tunately for  the  Vailian  theory  these 
demands  are  fully  met.  The  waters 
of  this  vast  region  communicated 
with  the  Arctic  ocean,  probably  by 
way  of  the  present  depression  in 
British  America,  along  the  valley  of 
the  McKenzie  river,  while  south  it 
communicated  with  the  Gulf  of 
Mexico. 

Rere  was  a  sea  forty  times  larger 
than  Lake  Erie.  Where  did  the 
water  come  from  that  made  the 
northern  part  fresh,  the  middle  part 
brackish  and  the  southern  portion 
marine?  The  Tertiary  of  the  Pacific 
Coast  is  marine;  so  is  a  larger  por- 
tion of  the  Atlantic  border.  Doubt- 
less Davis  Strait  poured  a  volume 
of  fresh-water  from  the  polar  world 
into  the  Atlantic,  for  there  is  the 
same  commingling  of  marine  and 
fresh-water  shells  on  the  northeast 
coast,  while  in  the  northern  part 
they  are  exclusively  fresh-water 
species.  Rivers  could  not  have 
done  this,  for  all  the  rivers  from 
Delaware  Bay  around  the  coast  of 
the  Gulf  of  Mexico  were  not  suffi- 
cient to  lay  down  fresh- water  Terti- 
ary. Admit  that  the  vast  polar 
ocean  of  the  Tertiary  period  was  a 
body  of  fresh-water,  and  all  diffi- 
culties disappear. 

Geologists  admit  that  in  the  Ter- 
tiary period  mountains  were  made 
on  every  continent,  that  there  was  a 


22 


THE  VAILAN  OK  ANNULAR  SYSTEM. 


world-wide  disturbance  of  strata, 
and  the  most  complete  extermina- 
tion of  species  on  record.  The 
Cretaceous  world  was  swept  by  a 
mighty  cataclysmic  wave,  and  its 
animals  were  buried  in  the  detrital 
mass  swept  from  the  land  into  the 
seas  and  formed  the  lower  Eocene 
beds.  Nothing  of  which  we  can 
conceive  could  do  this  but  a  down- 
pour of  Annular  waters.  One-third 
of  North  America,  a  great  part  of 
Northern  Europe,  nearly  all  of  Si- 
beria, much  of  China,  and  other 
parts  of  Asia  were  apparently  syn- 
chronously sub  merged  beneath 
fresh  water. 

The  ocean  of  fresh-water  proves 
the  augmentation  of  snows  from  the 
great  super-ariel  fund.  The  Creta- 
ceous age  closed  by  excessive  and 
unusual  refrigeration.  The  trans- 
ported blocks  of  stone  found  in  the 
Upper  Cretaceous  and  Lower  Terti- 
ary point  to  a  northern  origin.  The 
evidence  is  overwhelmingly  in  favor 
of  an  Annular  fall  of  waters  in  the 
north  polar  world  at  that  time. 

Existing  continents  were  sub- 
merged under  Cretaceous  waters. 
The  Rocky  Mountains,  Andes,  Alps 
and  Himalayas  were  either  unborn 
or  in  their  infant  stage.  But  some 
mighty  barrier  was  raised  that 
rolled  the  Cretaceous  waters  south- 
ward, and  made  an  isolated  fresh 
water  ocean  on  the  north.  It  was 
the  great  Atlantic  plateau  reaching 
from  New  Foundland  to  Ireland, 
which  is  known  by  actual  soundings 
and  other  evidence  to  be  a  sub- 
merged table  land.  It  was  raised 
from  the  deep  at  this  very  time  and 
stood  for  uncounted  milleniums  as 
dry  land. 

Suppose  an  ice  cap  5000  feet  thick 
should  suddenly  cover  the  Arctic 


world.  It  would  press  that  part  of 
the  glDbe  inward  and  downward 
upon  i'  self  even  if  the  planet  were 
solid  to  the  centre.  It  would  render 
the  rocks  plastic  and  they  would  be 
pushed  under  the  continents  caus- 
ing the  crust  of  the  earth  to  rise  into 
mountains  in  many  places.  Just 
what  occurred  in  Cretaceous  and 
Tertiaiy  times. 

We  oan  trace  the  shore-line  of  an 
almost  limitless  fresh-water  sea 
around,  the  whole  hemisphere  in 
Tertiaiy  times,  showing  that  the 
Arctic  ocean  was  a  wide  expanse  of 
fresh  waters.  This  leads  to  the  pos- 
itive and  permanent  establishment 
of  the  Vailian  or  Annular  theory. 


APPENDIX. 

TH3  LAST  ADVANCE  OF  GLACIERS. 

The  last  downfall  of  exterior 
vapors  was  at  the  time  of  Noah,  and 
produced  the  deluge.  These  vapors 
naturally  gravitated  toward  the 
polar  regions  and  falling  there  as 
snows  would  accumulate  as  glaciers, 
their  magnitude  and  extent  corres- 
ponding with  the  amount  of  falling 
snows.  It  is  evident  if  there  ever 
was  ar  Eden  climate  upon  the  earth 
its  destruction  was  brought  about 
by  a  change  of  climate.  If  the 
Deluge  was  a  collapse  of  the  last 
remna  it  of  upper  waters  the  latter 
must  'lave  begun  to  fall  in  polar 
regions  many  centuries  previous. 

The  Eden  world  suffered  a  change 
of  climate  during  the  Adamic  age, 
for  the  race*  that  dwelt  naked  in 
Eden  became  clothed  in  the  skins 
of  animals.  If  this  infant  race 
dwelt  naked  the  climate  was  warm. 
If  afterward  it  became  necessary  to 
be  clothed  with  the  skins  of  animals 
it  certainly  had  become  cold.  If 


THE  VAILAN  OR  ANNULAR  SYSTEM. 


23 


the  cold  increased  it  was  probably 
caused  by  the  fal]  of  snow  in  polar 
regions.  The  physical  condition  of 
the  antideluvians  and  their  environ- 
ment depended  on  the  conditions  of 
the  upper  vapors.  Hence,  polar 
glaciers  began  to  advance  in  Edenic 
times. 

Glaciers  advanced  slowly,  and  are 
still  advancing.  Eight  hundred 
years  ago  Greenland  was  not  the 
frigid  land  it  now  is.  The  Iceland- 
ers and  the  Northmen  sailed  through 
northern  seas  in  the  interest  of 
commerce  where  now  our  hardiest 
seamen  with  iron-clad  vessels 
scarcely  dare  to  venture.  They 
pushed  forward  commercial  enter- 
prises into  lands  that  are  now  in- 
hospital  and  uninhabited. 

The  present  glacitation  of  polar 
worlds  is  but  the  result  of  the  last 
declension  of  outward  vapors.  The 
great  ice  caps  of  polar  regions  are 


moving  toward  the  equator  and  are 
constantly  dimishing.  It  is  possi- 
ble that  we  are  approaching  a  day 
when  the  last  ice  berg  will  be  borne 
toward  the  tropics,  and  the  last 
glacier  will  melt,  and  a  more  genial 
climate  pervade  the  greater  portion 
of  the  earth. 

LONGEVITY  OF  THE  ANCIENTS. 

According  to  the  biblical  account 
people  lived  to  be  800  and  900 
years  old.  This  was  principally 
because  of  the  modification  of  solar 
energy.  Man's  physical  environ- 
ments impelled  long  life;  and  hie 
longevity  diminished  immediately 
after  the  upper  deep  fell  and  the 
sun  began  to  pour  his  beams  upon 
the  race  his  environment  evidently 
changed  with  that  event.  In  a  few 
generations  after  the  flood  man  died 
at  the  age  of  120  or  100  years,  and 
finally  at  three  score  and  ten. 


LETTER    FROM    PROF.    I.    N.   VAIL. 


MY  DEAR  DR.  BOWERS:  I  have  read 
with  much  interest  thy  compendium 
of  "The  Earth's  Annular  System," 
as  published  by  me  in  1886.  A  syn- 
opsis of  that  work  can  give  but  a 
meager  idea  of  the  grand  concep- 
tion of  the  annular  evolution  of  the 
earth.  "The  Annular  Theory"  stands 
on  the  immutable  truth  that  worlds 
evolve  according  to  invariable  law. 

This  compels  us  to"  admit  that  all 
worlds  are  made  alike,  in  the  gen- 
eral changes  they  undergo.  Just  as 
a  bud  evolves  into  a  flower  of  the 
most  delicate  construction  and  arch- 
itectural order,  so- a  world  launched 
from  the  same  designing  Hand  must 


move  in  the  same  line  of  eternal 
order,  and  under  the  law  of  natural 
uniformity  develop  and  grow  into  a 
completed  world. 

This  also  leads  us  to  the  conclu- 
sion that  if  one  world  possess  at  any 
time  an  annular  system,  then  all 
worlds  must  possess  a  similar  ap- 
pendage during  some  period  of  their 
existence.  Consequently  that  simple 
fact  that  the  planet  Saturn  possesses 
at  this  time  an  annular  or  ring  sys- 
tem is  proof  that  the  earth  once  had 
a  similar  appendage.  For  we  must 
either  admit  this  truth  or  we  must 
admit  that  the  planet  Saturn  has 
not  evolved  thus  far  along  a  line  of 
nature's  uniformity,  but  is  today  a 


THE  VAILAN  OR  ANNULAR  SYSTEM. 


victim  of  accidental  conditions.  This 
law  refuses  to  admit. 

But  "The  Annular  Theory"  does 
not  rest  on  these  grounds  alone.  A 
universe  of  invariable  order  pro- 
nounces it  an  immutable  truth.  The 
judgment  of  the  chemist  and  phi- 
losopher is  positive  that  a  rotating 
world  cannot  pass  from  the  molten 
state  to  the  present  condition  of  the 
earth  without  undergoing  annular 
changes. 

Since  the  publication  of  "The 
Earth's  Annular  System"  I  have  had 
opportunities  of  examining  more 
minutely  the  subjects  treated  of 
therein  and  have  secured  the  most 
overwhelming  evidence  that  the 
theory  there  proposed  is  in  the  main 
correct  and  will  stand  the  test  of  all 
time.  I  have  found,  outside  the 
realm  of  physical  science,  the  most, 
positive  evidence  that  primitive  man 
actually  saw  at  least  two  rings  re- 
volving about  the  earth,  named 
them  and  worshiped  them  as  gods. 
These  relics  I  heve  rescued  from  the 
wreck  of  ages,  and  with  these  I  will 
prove  the  fact  that  this  earth  once 
had  a  complex  system  of  Saturn- 
like  rings. 

Thus  in  the  end  the  geologist  and 
astronomer  will  be  compelled  to  ad- 
mit its  truthfulness  whether  they 
desire  to  or  not.  I  have  found 
among  the  ruins  of  ancient  Egypt, 
Babylonia,  India  and  China  annular 
fossils,  the  identification  of  which 
settles  at  once  and  forever  this  great 
question. 

Again,  I  need  not  point  the  geolo- 
gist to  the  mysteries  of  the  glacial 
epochs,  which  grow  darker  and 
darker  as  he  looks  for  a  competent 
cause  for  their  production.  He 
must  know  that  the  great  ocean  of 
vapors  that  hovered  for  unknown 


time  ever  the  earth  in  the  loftiest 
height. i  of  the  atmosphere,  such  as 
now  a  iv  seen  on  t'vo  of  our  neighbor 
planets;,  could  r.or.  Lave  fallen  to  the 
without  covering  it  in  the 
r  latitudes  with  measureless 
masses  of  snow,  requiting  in  excess- 
ive refrigeration.  I  need  but  point 
him  to  the  fact,  proven  -by  the  coast 
survey •?  of  the  world,  that  the  oceans 
have  e  icioached  upon  the  land  to 
such  ai  extent  since  the  last  glacial 
epoch  ihat  they  stand  now  fully 
thirty  I'athoms  deeper  than  they  did 
in  pre  -glacial  times.  I  neeel  only 
point  him  to  that  grand  clock-work 
of  worlds  shining  from  the  firma- 
ment —  every  scintillating  point, 
every  roiling  s;;n,  is  a  witness  of 
nature  s  eternal  order,  and  proclaims 
that  viiniformitari»n  principle  of 
world  evolution,  by  which  the  philo- 
sophic investigator  must  stand.  The 
geologist  must  build  on  this  rock  of 
uniformity  in  the  evolution  of  worlds. 
The  eirth  has  evolved  along  fin's 
line,  and  the  wreck  of  annular  con- 
ditions is  seen  on  every  page  of  its 
rocky  volume. 

In  t'ici  year  1875  I  published  a 
little  volume  entitled  "The  Earth's 
Aqueous  Ring."  In  it  1  stated  my 
con  vie  dons,  and  gave  reasons  there- 
for, tint  all  the  glacial  periods  the 
world  ever  saw  were  produced  by 
supra-  lerial  vapors  descending  from 
an  annular  system  that  revolved 
about  the  earth  from  the  remotest 
geologic  ages  to  the  liood  of  Noah, 
which  was  itself  produced  by  the 
fall  oif  the  last  remnants  of  those 
upper  waters.  These  claims  I  am 
fully  i  repared  to  substantiate,  what- 
ever opposition"  may  be  brought 
against  them. 

ISAAC  N.  VAIL, 

ELSINORE,  Gal,  July  6,  18(J± 


juL2f72-3n  64 


Caylord  Bros. 

Makers 
Syracuse.  N.  Y. 

PAT.  JAN.  21.  1908 


YC   14833 


CDMS^flblSfl 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


